Ishan Kishan’s unbeaten 80 off 46 balls and a quickfire 38 off 21 from 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi helped India post 169 for seven against Sri Lanka in the second men’s cricket semifinal at the Asian Games here on Thursday.
Opting to bowl, Sri Lanka’s spinners made good use of a turning pitch, restricting India after the early departures of Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson.
India brought Sooryavanshi back into the playing XI for the semifinal, along with Abhishek and Samson, while left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh was left out, leaving Jasprit Bumrah as the only frontline fast-bowling option.
Sri Lanka also relied heavily on spin, with only two overs of pace used during the powerplay as the ball turned sharply.
Abhishek made a brisk 7 off three balls, smashing a six off captain Sahan Arachchige before attempting to make room and edging a catch to short third man.
Samson, who scored 7 off nine balls, was deceived by ambidextrous spinner Tharindu Ratnayake, who switched between left-arm spin against right-handers and off-spin against left-handers. Samson exposed his stumps and was bowled by a straighter delivery.
Sooryavanshi, however, kept the scoring rate high with his attacking strokeplay. After three overs of spin, Binura Fernando was introduced and the teenager immediately took him on, hitting a length delivery over mid-off before finding consecutive boundaries.
He then reverse-swept Ratnayake and followed it with a six over long-on. His best shot came against Fernando when he pulled a delivery through the leg side, helping India reach 58 for two at the end of the powerplay.
Sooryavanshi fell soon after, caught at short third man off Arachchige in a dismissal similar to Abhishek’s.
The wickets of captain Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel in the middle overs further slowed India’s progress before Kishan took charge.
The left-hander targeted the spinners by hitting straight down the ground, with four of his six sixes coming between long-on and long-off. He also struck four boundaries to provide India with a strong finish.
(With inputs from PTI)
